At the end of March 2002, the number of Aiwa Co., Ltd. permanent employees stood at 1,100. This has been reduced to about 500 as of October 1, 2002, most of these belonging to product planning, development and design divisions. The plan to integrate Aiwa's domestic and international production and sales activities into the Sony platform has been implemented. Aiwa's factories in Malaysia and Indonesia have been closed and the employee-count rationalized. In Asia, the Middle East and the USA, the procedure of consigning sales and service activities to Sony sales companies has almost been completed, and nearly all Aiwa sales subsidiaries are now in the process of closing down. In Japan, Sony Marketing (Japan) Inc. now handles Aiwa sales business. In Europe, it is planned to start consigning sales activities from Aiwa to Sony from October. Aiwa's corporate reforms have therefore proceeded on schedule and the conversion to a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sony will take place as planned on October 1, 2002.